Deepfake voice calls almost got me to wire $2k to my 'boss' last week

Some scammer cloned my manager's voice perfectly from a few YouTube clips and called asking for an emergency payment to a vendor. Has anyone else dealt with voice deepfakes hitting this close to home yet?

4 comments

4 Comments

max2231mo ago

Gotta say, I'm not as worried about this as most people seem to be. Scammers have been using social engineering tricks for decades, this is just a slightly fancier version of the same con. A quick callback to the real number would have killed the whole thing before it started.

ward.jamie1mo ago

Actually had a buddy fall for something similar last year, but it was a fake cop calling about a warrant for his arrest. He almost paid them 500 bucks before his wife googled the number and found it was a known scam. @king.val you're right about the voice cloning thing being next level, it strips away that gut feeling you usually get when something feels off. My friend said the guy sounded so real and angry that he froze up completely. Makes me wonder if we're all just one distracted moment away from getting played, no matter how careful we think we are.

king.val1mo ago

Man that's terrifying... I've been reading about this but hearing it happen to a real person makes it so much worse. The fact they used YouTube clips is what gets me, it's not even like they hacked anything they just used public stuff. I had a close call last month with something similar but it was a text, not a voice call. The voice thing is next level though because you trust it so much more. Really glad you didn't send the money, that could have been a nightmare to untangle.

ray_williams1mo ago

It's wild because this feels like part of a bigger shift where nothing is safe anymore. I mean, we already knew scammers could fake emails or texts, but now they're using stuff we put out there for fun like YouTube videos. The other day I got a Facebook message from someone pretending to be my cousin, and they used old photos to make it look real. It's like every piece of info we share online is just ammo for them now. The voice cloning thing is especially scary because it makes you drop your guard completely.